Lycus (mythology)

Lycus or Lykos is the name of several people in Greek mythology:

* Lycus (son of Ares), a Libyan king in Greek mythology who sacrificed strangers to his father. He was the father of Callirhoê, who was a lover of Diomedes.
* Lycus (brother of Nycteus) in Greek mythology, Lycus was uncle to Antiope whom Zeus impregnated. She fled in shame to King Epopeus of Sicyon and abandoned her children, Amphion and Zethus. They were exposed on Mount Cithaeron, but were found and brought up by a shepherd. Nycteus, unable to retrieve his daughter, sent his brother Lycus to take her. He did so and gave her as a slave to his own wife, Dirce.
*Lycus (Descendant of Lycus). Lycus is a descendant of Lycus (brother of Nycteus)
* Son of Poseidon and Celaeno, brother of Eurypylus. The two brothers ruled over the Fortunate Islands.
* Son of Prometheus and Celaeno, brother of Chimaerus. The brothers are said to have had tombs in the Troad; they are otherwise unknown.
* Son of Dascylus of Mysia or Mariandyne. He was hospitable towards the Argonauts and Heracles, who conquered the land of the Bebryces (Heraclea Pontica).
* Son of Hyrieus. He became the guardian of Labdacus and Laius. He is probably the same as Lycus, brother of Nycteus.
* One of the four sons of Pandion II. Upon the death of Pandion, Lycus and his brothers (Aegeus, Nisus, and Pallas) took control of Athens from Metion, who had seized the throne from Pandion. They divided the government in four but Aegeas became king. According to Herodotus (i.173) he gave his name to Lycia in Asia Minor, hitherto known as Tremilis/Termilae. "The Lykos tradition is probably a pseudo-myth of no great antiquity, as the German scholar Treuber claimed on the grounds that there is no evidence of a family tree in Athenian genealogy; Treuber suggests that political motives may have helped to foster the tradition", reported T. R. Bryce, "The Arrival of the Goddess Leto in Lycia" "Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte" 32.1 (1983:1-13) p. 4.
*Son of Poseidon and Alcyone.